


Hidden Face, Cold Body

by Shadowofahunter



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Blood, Gen, Hurt Spencer Reid, One Shot, Spencer Reid Whump, Whump, Worried Hotch, Worried Morgan, ambulance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-19 21:15:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8224993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowofahunter/pseuds/Shadowofahunter
Summary: The BAU team follows up on one of Foyet's aliases hoping to find him and catch the reaper. However, disaster follows leaving one of the team with a choice. Stay? or go? Set in season 4 before Hotch is attacked but after meeting Foyet





	

Reid, Morgan, Hotch, Prentiss and Rossi stepped out of their cars and began to strap on their vests.  
"Ok" Hotch began, the rest of the team paused to listen, "we know this is one of Foyet's aliases' houses and there is the possibility that he is dead, if he is we have nothing to go on and we have lost the reaper. Medics" the small collection of people who stood around the ambulance listened in, "you'll need to be ready to get Foyet to the hospital if need be."  
The highest rank nodded and began to organise his team.  
Hitch turned back to face his own, "Reid, Morgan. You two will scout the lower floors. Rossi and I will go for upstairs, and Prestiss you check the attic." He raised his hand to the walkie talkie attached to his vest, "Garcia you there?"  
"When am I ever not, gorgeous" her bright voice made them smile sightly, releasing the tension briefly.  
"I need you to connect all our earpieces. We can't be separate on this."  
"And there I was thinking you needed me for my brains" Garcia playfully replied, "all done"  
"Thanks baby girl" Morgan smiled  
"Final checks then we go." Hotch declared grim faced

Reid and Morgan stepped back. Morgan spoke first, "we need to cover as much ground as fast as possible. You check the living room and kitchen, I'll take the bathroom and garden."  
"You know if the reaper has killed Foyet he may still be inside." Reid mused  
"Why? He's never done it before?"  
"He's waited ten years to do this. Maybe he wants to increase the thrill of it. Get more of a kick, if he has a near miss with us then it will make us feel like we could have stopped him. It's a more psychological tactic, like intimidation. Others have done it before."

Rossi, Hotch and Prentiss went in first shouting and guns outstretched. Morgan and Reid dashed in afterwards, Reid peeling off to enter the kitchen while Morgan continued down the hall to the bathroom. 

The attic was damp and gloomy. Prentiss pulled a face as the smell of mildew hit her and she quickly worked her way round the open level. A few boxes stood in the corner, damp ate away at the cardboard welcoming green mould onto the edges. Slowly she edged over to them and poked a finger under the flap to see that old blankets and a picnic basket was inside. She did not see the shadow of a person slip past under the ladder leading up to the attic. She did one last sweep to ensure nobody was with her. Finally she made her way down the ladder, whilst softly relaying her lack of Foyet or the Reaper to the team, back into the light. Back into the search. 

Rossi and Hotch had swept the bedrooms and bathroom finding nothing. All the beds were made, bathroom cabinet stocked and toothbrush sitting on the sink. There was even some old toothpaste stuck to the inside of the basin. A shampoo bottle was oozing its contents into the bath tub, it looked recently disturbed.  
Rossi went from one bedroom to another, methodically checking every crevice, every crack that could be a hiding place. He came to the last one and saw a window was open. He frowned and made a mental note to tell Hotch about it.  
In the bathroom the mirror was covered with the Reaper's sigil. The red eye stared out  
at Hotch, mocking him for his incompetence of not doing anything on those ten years.  
"Don't let him get to you" Prentiss whispered from the door. Her face was serious but compassion shone through underneath, "he is just doing it to get in your head. Don't let the bastard get you."  
Hotch pulled in a deep breath and nodded, "we need to finish off this level then we regroup out front."

Morgan was outside. The grass was wet with dew and the air held that crispness only achieved at night. Strangely there was no sound, the crickets were silent, the owls had vanished. Light from the full moon streamed down on the small overgrown garden entangled with weeds, but the sky did not hold that infinite quality, it seemed flat like it was barrier. A closed door barring access to the view of countless stars beyond. However, Morgan wasn't aware of any of these facts since he was out cold on the ground, the dew speckled grass shoots poked his face.

A shadow fell over his prone body. The person reached down and searched through his pockets until he drew back and sat on his haunches, Derek's credentials in his hand. Slowly the person stood up and simultaneously drew out a pistol and aimed it at Morgan, "Wake up Derek. Wake up to die"

Reid crept through the kitchen, gun outstretched and breathing soft. His heart was racing, it always did when he was part of a raid or extraction. No matter how many times he'd done it a part of himself always doubted his ability, he was worried the team would see him as a child who can't do the simplest of tasks. Reid knew it was all in his head, and he knew that his racing heart was his adrenaline pulsing round excreted from the adrenal glands located above his kidneys. A completely natural response, a reflex he can never override. It still made him nervous. 

The kitchen was messy, dishes were strewn over the counter top, both clean and dirty. The sink too was filled with pans, utensils and filth. It was beginning to smell. Foyet must not have been here for a long time, Hotch had said his last house was clean, not obsessively so but not this. Slowly Reid edged round a fallen chair and pushed the door open that led to the living room. Here too there was mess. Papers, magazines, books with pages torn and ripped were carelessly thrown around, the disrespect of the books physically hurt Reid. The couch was battered with stuffing bleeding from a slit in the blood red fabric. An ancient tv sat in the corner, it was on but only static showed, quiet white noise filled the silent room. 

On the facing wall a glass sliding door was slightly open. Cool dusk wind whistled in making Reid shiver, his nerves making him hypersensitive. Slowly he stepped closer the door, he poked his head round the edge, pistol held high, safely catch off. He nearly gasped aloud when he saw Morgan lying on his back head tilted slightly to the side, hands relaxed and a man standing over his friend, gun pointed directly at him. Reid at once pushed the door open and raised his pistol, but the reaper saw him and dropped something that glinted on its journey to the ground where it fell with a heavy thump on the soft grass. The reaper sprinted straight at Reid and they crashed through the glass window, it shattered from the force of the impact. Reid let out a strangled yell as he fell and felt the air being forced out of his lungs and with the reaper above him ensured he was well and truly winded. Within seconds his lungs were clawing for oxygen, his palpitating heart and uncooperative lungs was making his vision blurry. Then his chest released and he drew in a long needed shaky breath. His relief was very short lived however since a masked face was only centimetres from his own.  
"You ruined it! You mother-"  
Reid punched the face and scrambled away fumbling for his pistol, but then when his fingers brushed an empty holster realised he had dropped it when he fell and it was now in the corner by the sliding door. Just behind the reaper. 

He backed up, gasping for breath. The reaper slowly stood up, Reid saw his mask lying on the floor a foot away with a crack in it. Eyes wide he watched as the unsub raised their head and came eye to eye with...Foyet? Foyet was the reaper?  
Suddenly everything clicked, it all made sense. By putting himself right in the investigation he gained immunity from being a suspect. The perfect crime.  
Whilst his mind was racing Foyet was advancing, "you son of a WHORE! You ruined everything"  
He flicked his hand and Reid was a glint as a knife dropped from up Foyet's sleeve. He raised his hands to defend himself, knowing it was be futile. 

What he couldn't prepare for was the feeling of the knife slicing through his skin, muscle and tendons. Foyet slid it just under his FBI vest. Reid knew it was not life threatening yet, only muscle was damaged, no organs or major arteries and veins. He still stumbled back from the power of Foyet's punch. The pair burst into the kitchen, plates crashed around then shattering and scattering their porcelain shards everywhere. He desperately reached around him and felt his hands come into contact with a nice long piece of plate, gripping it he brought it up to Foyet's face, ready to stab him but the older man beat him to it. Reid felt the knife pierce him bicep and couldn't stop his motion fast enough so the weapon was pushed in farther. But he managed to stab the China shard through Foyet's cheek. 

Hotch, Rossi and Prestiss heard the crash from downstairs and ran towards it. They skidded to a halt when they saw Morgan on the ground.  
"Morgan!" Prentiss rushed to him the men close behind him.  
"Help me pick him up" Hotch bent down to wrap his arms around Morgan's chest, Prestiss and Rossi helped heave their partner into the air and began their trek back to the ambulance. The house was silent. A small skittering noise came from their earpieces but they thought nothing of it. Morgan needed them right now. 

Foyet didn't cry out when he was stabbed, instead his muscles contracted and instinctively bit down on the offending article. Reid groaned as his arm flared in pain as Foyet tore the knife from him. Foyet, blood gushing from his face, staggered back.

Reid took this opportunity and scrambled up. On the floor lay his earpiece, still slowly spinning to a stop. Foyet yanked the porcelain shard from his cheek with a grimace and a snarl,  
"You though that would stop me? I stabbed myself countless times to fool you! This is nothing. Just. Like. You."  
Reid wanted to reply, but he couldn't say a word. He could barely breathe he was so scared. His hands trembled at his sides, and suddenly his vision switched to not the grey eyes of Foyet but the dark eyes of Tobias Hankel. Both men held the insane gleam. Both lost in their minds but at the same time that was what kept them going.  
He blinked and Foyet was a breath away.  
"Are you scared agent? Hm? No need to answer. I can see you're...terrifed."  
Reid backed up feeling giddy from blood loss. He hadn't lost too much, just enough to lessen his blood pressure slightly. Just enough to be disconcerting. 

Then Foyet closed the gap and, one hand grasping Reid's right arm, he pulled it up as Foyet brought his dagger up, deep into Reid's armpit. Right through his auxiliary artery. 

Almost instantaneously Reid himself begin to sway. His sight waved and fuzzed out, he saw, in slow motion Foyet dash back to retrieve him mask and put it on. He looked down at his right arm, his white shirt was rapidly staining red, his hand was still. He slowly lifted his left hand to his armpit to try and staunch the bleeding, he pushed his hand into the wound. It didn't hurt, bad sign. He would soon be in the Class 3 haemorrhage, with Class 4 looming. His heart was racing and his breathing was increasing rapidly, classic signs of severe blood loss. Hypovolemic shock was next for him at this rate. He began to sweat. Coldness seeped into his body.

Morgan came to soon after they found him, he had a concussion but other than that he'd be fine.  
"Where's Reid?" He groaned sitting up at the mouth of the ambulance, ice pack to his head  
"Still inside" Hotch answered, "Reid, come back to the entrance. We need to regroup." They all waited for a reply, "Reid?"  
"Spence?" JJ too spoke  
"Hey? Reid? Pretty boy? Where are you?"  
No reply.  
"Garcia? Can you get anything?"  
"His earpiece is still on, I don't know why he's not relying" she sounded anxious, her keyboard could be heard as she desperately tried to understand why Reid was not answering. 

The front door burst open and a flurry of movement cascaded past them. A man, his face hidden under a hood...and a mask.  
"Get him!" Hotch roared swinging his pistol up to aim at the reaper, his finger tightened on the trigger ready to fire. All his anger and pent up emotions coagulated in his finger around the trigger, ready to let it fire.

"Hotch" a tiny, broken voice in their ears halted all the team.

Everyone turned round to see Reid standing in the mouth of the door. His left hand was tucked up in his right armpit, as though he was cold. He was pale. So pale and he was shaking. His right arm hung limp at his side and blood gushed down it.  
They froze.  
Suddenly Reid collapsed. 

He fell in slow motion as Morgan sprinted up to him, Reid's eyes rolled back in his head, his knees buckled and his left arm slipped from his armpit. 

Morgan felt his throat was raw. Probably shouting. 

He need to get to Reid. 

He just missed catching him. His fingers brushed past his friends wet shirt. At once he scrambled round to apply pressure to his armpit. 

Garcia was screaming at him, demanding to know what it going on  
The team pulled up next to Reid and Morgan. Hotch crouched next to his teammates as he ripped off his tie,  
"Roll him onto his side, I need to tourniquet his shoulder." Gently they rolled Reid onto this left side, Hotch began to wrap his tie round and round their youngest team members shoulder in a desperate attempt to staunch the wound.  
"Hotch! If you do that wrong he could lose his arm!" Morgan yelled  
"Better that than his life." Hotch snapped back. His hands were slick with Reid's blood, his silk tie slipped between his fingers and he swore, panic adding to the terror cocktail, he was on the verge of tears, "check his pulse"  
Morgan fumbled to find Reid's pulse, at the base of his neck, just above the collar bone he found it. It was weak and thready. 

Rossi dashed up next to Hotch, "the medics are bringing a stretcher over."  
But Hotch didn't seem to hear him, he was too busy with Reid.  
"Move! Move!" The paramedics ordered, they squatted next to Reid and quickly shifted him onto the stretcher. An oxygen mask was placed on his face and the hard plastic bag was pumped to try and fill Reid's empty lungs with life. 

They relayed information back and forth so fast Morgan couldn't understand what they were saying. He, in a trance, followed them right to the ambulance, "I'm coming with him" he stated  
"Sir I'm sorry you can't. He needs immediate medical-"  
"I am getting in this ambulance, try and stop me! I am not leaving him alone." Derek clambered into the vehicle and sat by Reid's head. Looking out of the double door just before they slammed shut he saw Hotch, JJ, Prentiss and Rossi all ghostly in the light. Eyes wide and afraid. Every single one of them was crying. Apparently one of them had told Garcia.

Reid lay still...too still on the journey to the hospital. Derek kept a hand on his friends shoulder the whole way, reminding Reid he wasn't alone and to reassure himself that Reid was still there. The paramedics did the best they could with the tourniquet and after they adjusted it slightly, managed to slow the bleeding slightly but Reid had lost around half his whole blood volume right now. A female paramedic lent over him and pulled back an eyelid, flashing a light in each of his yes she muttered that his pupils were slow in response.  
"What does that mean?" Morgan asked, fear soaring through his veins.  
The hospital came into view and her mouth was open to reply when the heart monitor he was hooked up to suddenly began yelling at them.  
"He's going into cardiac arrest. Begin CPR."  
The medic got onto the stretcher and started CPR. Derek made no attempt to hide his fears and tears. 

Hotch drove like a man possessed. Sirens blaring and horn sounding he skidded round corners and accelerated through the traffic. He was so fast that they reached the emergency entrance 30 seconds before the ambulance. The team jumped from the car as the double doors were opened and a pack of paramedics rushed out to help bring Reid in. His stretcher was saturated with his blood, a woman was straddled over him hands on his chest rhythmically mimicking his heartbeat. 

Reid felt funny. He felt heavy but also ghostlike, almost as thought he wasn't really there. Where there was he was unsure. He tried to open his eyes but they felt too cumbersome to move. His throat was dry, he tried to speak but only a soft noise came from him. Muffled sounds came to him, rapid voices and shouts.  
He needed to tell Hotch, he needed to tell him that Foyet was the reaper. He needed to write a report. He doubled his efforts and he managed to open his eyes this time. Blinding white lights passed over head.  
"Dr Reid? Can you hear me? Blink if you can hear me" a blurry figure was sat above him.  
Lethargically he slid his eyelids down then pulled them back up again. He felt nauseous.  
"You're in a hospital. You're going to be just fine" Reid felt his eyelids start to flutter as the darkness came again, "no Dr Reid! Stay with me!......" The voice became muffled and echoey. He tried to stay awake but it was too much effort. He couldn't think properly, everything was confusing, so confusing. It's easier if he just...slept...

 

Morgan was lounged in a chair, one leg over the arm rest, head lolled back, mouth open. JJ sat right next to Reid, her head on the mattress, one hand holding Reid's the other resting next to her face. She was fast asleep. Prentiss was curled up on the other spare chair, her breathing was soft and slow, with each breath a strand on hair fluttered around her nose, like a ribbon caught in a gust of wind but unable to fly away. Rossi was the only one awake, he was leaning against the windowsill arms crossed and face passive but his eyes revealed his worry. Two pairs of footsteps approached the room. Instinctively Rossi lowered a hand down to his revolver.

Hotch and Garcia quietly came into the room. Hotch's eyes were still slightly red from his tears, Garcia, however, had tears streaming down her face blurring her makeup. She didn't care. Her eyes were locked on Reid,  
"Oh my god..." She whispered, "what happened? I mean I know he was stabbed but I don't really know... Is he going to be ok?" Even her soft voice roused the others.  
"It was the reaper. He got Morgan first then must've seen Reid and went after him. When Reid wakes up he can tell us everything" Hotch turned his explanation into more of a command, trying to bring their friend back to the waking world. 

Reid blinked, he was floating. He saw everyone around him, but they were foggy, their edges were blurred, almost like an evaporating gas. He called out to them but they didn't respond, they were all looking to his side. He turned to follow their gaze and saw...himself. He was lying silent and still. Bandages, wires and drips snaked over his body. His mind was racing, he'd read about this before, out of body experiences. In fact, here, it was autoscopy since he could see himself. It was odd, sounds were muted, colours dulled, lights dimmed. Overall he was standing in a grey world, neither living nor dead.  
"I guess this is the part where I choose." He muttered  
Choose. Go? Or stay? 

Going would be easy; no pain, no misery, no more unsubs who revealed the very worst of humanity. He didn't believe in heaven. After he went what then? Uncertainty. But he would cause his friends more pain than he even wanted to think about. He still needed to tell Hotch...what did he need to tell him? It was important. He felt the same as when you put something in a special place to remember it, but then that place is so specific you forget. 

Staying was hard. It would mean therapy, fear and pain. But also his family. His real family, not blood, his team. He couldn't leave them. He let his eyes roam across their faces.  
Rossi: a man whom he'd revered his whole life, memorised his books, worshiped his words.  
Hotch: although he can seem a miserable and humourless cyborg sometimes, underneath he had a huge heart and cared deeply for his team.  
Garcia: everyone needs colour and she was their Jackson Pollock. Her vibrancy raised their spirits when in the darkest of hours, she constant optimism is something he cannot snuff out by leaving.  
Prentiss: her humanity and unshakable loyalty helped everyone to remember there was more than just the unsub.  
JJ: Reid had few true friends, people he'd tell anything to. JJ was one of them. He'd told her his darkest secrets and she him. They had an unbreakable bond. He wouldn't give that up.  
Morgan: another of his best friends. They'd been through so much to go now. Their friendship was unbreakable. Morgan was always there for him and He for Morgan. 

He would exchange nothing he had for anything in the world. Granted this may be exhausting, demoralising and sometimes near impossible, it was his life. And he loved it. His team helped raise him from the darkest time in his life, and he too helped them when they needed. He would not leave. 

He. Would. Not. Leave. 

Would. Not. Leave. 

Not. Leave. 

Stay. 

 

A small noise brought all their attention to Reid. His nose twitched slightly in the classic Reid movement. His brow flickered into a frown and his eyes fluttered open.  
"Morning" Prentiss smiled  
Reid groaned, "whose been dancing on my chest?" His body ached. Most of all his right shoulder and arm.  
The team chuckled, "sorry kid, couldn't resist it. They played a great song over the stereo." Morgan smiled  
Reid huffed a laugh, then sighed, he searched his memory trying to remember, post traumatic amnesia, however, hindered it, "what happened?"  
The others' faces fell, Hotch spoke up, "you were stabbed by the reaper, you were brought to the hospital and they operated."  
"Care to elaborate?"  
His question was met with an uncomfortable silence, in the pause more sensation returned to Reid. This included a numb fuzzy feeling in his whole body, he knew that feeling. Pain killers.  
He looked up at the drips haloing him and found the bag he needed, he reached up to follow the IV line,  
"Reid? What are you doing?" Prentiss squeaked  
Reid ignored her and ran his finger underneath the plastic tube right to his right arm to find the needle. Morgan reached out a hand to stop him but Reid slapped it away, frustrated, he pulled the needle out of his arm and dropped it on the floor.  
"What was that for?" Hotch demanded reaching down to pick it up  
"I don't want it" Reid mumbled as memories of Hankel pulsed back into his mind. 

His eyes rushed to the forefront but they changed. Into the eyes of Foyet. A mask. A knife. Coldness. Pain. Darkness. 

"Reid!" A frightened shout shook him from his thoughts. He blinked and saw JJ, hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him, "calm down" her eyes flocked to the heart monitor, his pulse was racing. He wasn't bothered.  
"Foyet" he said, "Foyet is the reaper"  
"What?" Hotch demanded  
"Hi-his mask fell off. I punched him. He stabbed himself. I...plate" his eyes were jumping everywhere as his mind tried to sort out his muddled memory into order,  
"Slow down kid. Tell us what happened. What do you mean he's the reaper?" Morgan suggested  
"His injuries were self-induced" Reid replied, "So as to place himself as a victim"  
"Guaranteed immunity. Hiding in plain sight." Rossi finished, "we'd never suspect him"  
"So when I stabbed him in the face with a porcelain shard, he didn't flinch"  
"What?"  
"After he stabbed me in the chest he pushed me into the kitchen and when I fell all the plates did too. They shattered and I used a shard to stab him." Reid kept his eyes locked on his hands as he recalled the story. Tears rolled down his face due to the emotion running through him. His arm as starting to throb now the drugs were wearing off.  
"Why don't you start from the top. We need to know everything that can help us find the Reaper... or Foyet" Prentiss gently offered  
Reid gently smiled, "you're talking to me like we do the victims." But he took in a deep breath and explained what happened with Foyet. 

"That's all I remember..." He tailed off looking up at his team.  
They were quiet, then Morgan spoke up, "you should rest. You look tired" the others all nodded and left, except Garcia.  
"What are they doing?"  
"Thinking they're protecting me by discussing it outside" Reid felt his heart sink, they still thought of him as the child of the group  
"Hey" she sat down next to him and took his hand, "don't beat yourself up"  
"Foyet already did that"  
Garcia smiled a small sad smile, "but now he can't escape. We are going to find him." When Reid didn't cheer up she bent down to her purse and brought out a small pot, "will this make you feel better?"  
Reid glanced at it and felt his eyes widen, "is that Jello?!"  
She chuckled and nodded, when Reid went to take it she drew back, "nuh-uh. After you've slept"  
Reid gave his best pleading eyes but nothing could break the will of Penelope Garcia so he gave up the battle and settled into the covers.  
Garcia stood up to leave, the jello pot by his bed side,  
"Garcia?"  
"Yeah, sugar?"  
Reid felt sleep drawing him into its warm embrace, "tell the...tell the team...tell...te-..." He drifted off to sleep before he could finish his sentence:

Tell them they're my family.


End file.
